A Conversation with Mark Sears, former Director of Group Brand Strategy at Virgin @searsio by - Business Inspired By Nature : Biomimicry for Creative Innovation

A conventional business thinks of brand as a mechanism to speak to consumers. More cynically, it is just a marketing tool, often with the goal of getting consumers and potential customers to buy things they don’t really need and/or for reasons that don’t really make sense for them.

A business inspired by nature has a unique R10 vision, full of positive virtuous cycles that are fully aligned with nature; it follows nature’s principles thus is values-based and life-supporting; it fosters creativity and diversity, empowering employees; it brings real and relevant value to customers so they can thrive, and can expect the same in return. .. http://www.businessinspiredbynature.com/blog/branding-inspired-nature

▶ What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? This video clip tries to give competent but also entertaining answers to this question. The video is part of series "in a little green bag" at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland.

What is the UN Global Compact? “ The Global Compact asks companies to embrace universal principles and to partner with the United Nations. It has grown to become a critical platform for the UN to engage effectively with enlightened global business.”– UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Ethical Corporation, August 20, 2014▶ IS ETHICS THE SAVIOUR OF BRANDING?In order to retain credibility, branding needs ethics at its heart Branding as we know it today is dying. These aren’t just whispers from the fringe but discussions in mainstream journals ranging f...http://www.ethicalcorp.com/business-strategy/ethics-saviour-branding

ANIMATED VIDEO - ALSTON GROUP

"WHAT IS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY?"

Published on Jun 13, 2013

Are you familiar with the term 'corporate social responsibility'? This concept relates to how growth can be achieved in a responsible way by people, businesses and governments. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes into account increased populations and scarce resources to ensure that global development is sustainable. Three central pillars of economic progress, social justice and environmental protection now form the basis of how businesses interact and support communities...http://www.alstom.com/Sustainability/animated-series-on-csr/

▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/63qRl3

EcoWatch, February 22, 2014

-▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable.http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/

“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man.” Henry David Thoreau

Treehugger, February 26, 2015- ▶ 'LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS" IS A MUST-READ FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS.Kids are developing more problems than ever (think obesity, technology addiction, adolescent depression, suicide, etc.), all of which Louv connects to nature deficit disorder. Spending more time outdoors could help resolve many of these issues, but this can happen only if kids are allowed greater access to nature. That’s where parents and policies come into play http://www.treehugger.com/culture/last-child-woods-must-read-all-parents-and-educators.html

November 19, 2012 The Guardian, George Monbiot

- ▶ IF CHILDREN LOSE CONTACT WITH NATURE THEY WON'T FIGHT FOR IT. With half of their time spent at screens, the next generation will be poorly equipped to defend the natural world from harm...

... While the surveys show that the great majority would like to see the living planet protected, few are prepared to take action. This, I think, reflects a second environmental crisis: the removal of children from the natural world. The young people we might have expected to lead the defence of nature have less and less to do with it... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/19/children-lose-contact-with-nature

Children In Nature Collaborative▶ LOOKING TOWARDS THAT MAGICAL MOMENT. A 69 percent decrease in time spent in outdoor activities and games on days off from school. These concerns and others related to children’s lack of connection to the natural world are part of a complex picture. Despite the extraordinary efforts of the movement, time spent outdoors by children across the globe continues to decline at an alarming ratehttp://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5098ae2bbd84a5038da2a0128&id=1766599b45&e=82fb31e8b3

Scholastic.com- ▶ WHY KIDS NEED NATURE. When a child is out in nature, all the senses get activated. He/She is immersed in something bigger than themselves, rather than focusing narrowly on one thing, such as a computer screen. They're seeing, hearing, touching, even tasting. Out in nature, a child's brain has the chance to rejuvenate, so the next time he has to focus and pay attention, perhaps in school, he'll do better.http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/why-kids-need-nature

TribLIVE, August 02, 2014 - ▶ MORE PEOPLE AFRAID OF OUTDOOR - DISCONNECT WITH NATURE BLAMED.Once upon a time, children grew up playing outside: fishing the local creek, riding their bikes or building forts in the woods. But that's not the norm anymore...“You've kind of got a whole generation now that's isolated. They didn't grow up playing outside... http://triblive.com/sports/outdoors/6519595-74/outdoors-outside-baker

documents innovative outdoor-education programs around the country created to help children understand and experience the wonders and joys of nature. The film explores the immediate and lasting benefits of introducing young children to "green" experiences. Natural spaces - in the form of gardens, small trails and outdoor "green adventure" areas - allow for the discoveries and choices vital to child development and learning. In addition, outdoor education can cultivate in children a permanent connection with the natural world - a crucial ethic of environmental responsibility.http://vimeo.com/channels/371945/30186232/77981721

-▶ CLASSROOMS THAT GROW FOOD. The SEED classroom is a place for children to learn and think about sustainability (SEED itself standing for Sustainable Education Every Day). Each 900 sq ft (84 sq m) building catches rainwater to be used in the sinks and basins, from which water is intercepted once again, and filtered through a "living wall" of edible plants. The classroom's energy is provided by rooftop solar power http://www.gizmag.com/seed-classroom/27763/

Guardian, February 12, 2014 - ▶ TEN REASONS WHY WE NEED MORE CONTACT WITH NATURE. It improves your memory, helps you recuperate and even makes your sense of smell more acute. So turn off your computer and get outside

And here we meet the other great loss. Most of those I know who fight for nature are people who spent their childhoods immersed in it.

Without a feel for the texture and function of the natural world, without an intensity of engagement almost impossible in the absence of early experience, people will not devote their lives to its protection. The fact that at least half the published articles on ash dieback have been illustrated with photos of beeches, sycamores or oaks seems to me to be highly suggestive.

Forest Schools, Outward Bound, Woodcraft Folk, the John Muir Award, the Campaign for Adventure, Natural Connections, family nature clubs and many others are trying to bring children and the natural world back together. But all of them are fighting forces which, if they cannot be turned, will strip the living planet of the wonder and delight, of the ecstasy – in the true sense of that word – that for millennia have drawn children into the wilds.

RETURN OF THE DEBTORS' PRISON? MANY STILL JAILED FOR INABILITY TO PAY FINES. Cities across the country are increasingly turning to what are known as private probation companies to collect unpaid fines. But are indigent people ending up in jail because they can't afford to pay? Since NewsHour Weekend's first story on this issue aired last spring, the Childersburg Municipal Court issued a “standing order” stating that “In no case shall an indigent defendant be incarcerated … based solely on his or her inability to pay fines.” But the practice continues elsewhere in the country. Special correspondent John Carlos Frey takes an in-depth look at what some are calling the return of the debtors' prison. Continue reading http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/return-debtors-prison/

February 11, 2015 Local jails, which exist in nearly every town and city in America, are built to hold people deemed too dangerous to release pending trial or at high risk of flight. This, however, is no longer primarily what jails do or whom they hold, as people too poor to post bail languish there and racial disparities disproportionately impact communities of color. The Report also highlights jurisdictions that have taken steps to mitigate negative consequences, all with the aim of informing local policymakers and their constituents who are interested in in reducing recidivism, improving public safety, and promoting stronger, healthier communities.http://www.vera.org/pubs/special/incarcerations-front-door-misuse-jails-america

-▶ A MODERN-DAY DEBTORS PRISON? JUDGES PUSH BACK AGAINST THE SOUTH' PRIVATIZATION WAVE: In Southern states, small-town courts have outsourced probation management to for-profit companies charging fees out of reach to the country's poorest residents. Many people end up in jail for nonpayment. These judges want private companies out of their courts. PRIVATIZING PROBATION AND PROFITING FROM POVERTY http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/a-modern-day-debtors-prison

Old Debts, Fresh Pain: Weak Laws Offer Debtors Little ProtectionCritics say the 1968 federal law that allows collectors to take 25 percent of debtors’ wages, or every penny in their bank accounts, is out of date and overly harsh. More » http://www.propublica.org/series/unforgiven

Harvard Gazette, December 24, 2014- ▶NATURE AND WELL BEING : A KEY URBAN PLANNING INTERSECTION Is there a dose of nature that can help make city dwellers’ lives healthier and more productive? Research suggests that the answer is yes, but also that the issue is more complex than that simple formulation. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/12/a-key-urban-intersection/

NASA Earth Observatory- ▶ BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY. Like it or not, throughout this century, the United States has undergone a steady process of urbanization as a larger and larger percentage of the population has moved towards the cities. Unlike rural communities, urban sprawl completely transforms the landscape and the soil and alters the surrounding ecosystem and the climate.http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Lights/

- ▶ RESEARCH CONFIRMS FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT GREEN SPACE DOES IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.

The new study compared the mental well-being of hundreds of people in the UK who moved from a grey urban setting to a greener area to those who moved in the opposite direction.The results revealed that those surrounded by nature felt happier and more content for many years.

OutsideOnline, September 25, 2014STUDY: HIKING MAKES YOU HAPPIER.British and American scientists have published new research showing that group nature walks help us combat stress while boosting mental well-being

The WILD Foundation also recently launched the WILD Cities Project, which it describes as “a new concept of urbanism where wild nature is highly valued and its conservation is a conscious part of human life in cities worldwide” [3]. Goals of the WILD Cities Project include identifying successful urban initiatives aligned with the principles of Nature Needs Half, formulating criteria for defining a WILD city, and developing strategies to communicate to the public the need for nature in our cities.http://wild10.org/en/program/the-global-foru/working-coalitions/wild-cities

Public perception of wildlife tends to be tied to natural habitats such as forests, ocean and other wild settings. However, cities can provide habitat for many animals and plants. In the largest global assessment of urban biodiversity to date, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers examined the biodiversity of urban areas and found that cities are home to a surprising number of species. The study underlines the conservation importance of preserving and creating green spaces when it comes to urban planning.Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0411-levikov-cities-biodiversity.html#fBOegyyVwsoUc3Vf.99

- ▶ THE GREEN LEAP: CAN WE CONSTRUCT URBAN COMMUNITIES THAT CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY?

Why are green developments different? The goals are conservation while providing a unique living experience. Biodiversity, however, often is lower on the totem pole of priorities.

For the first time in our history, more people live in urban vs. rural areas and humans continue to move into cities. Cities have huge impacts on our natural resources. Urban dwellers consume vast amounts of energy, produce waste, and alter landscapes to the point where native plant and animal populations decline precipitously. As cities grow, people have pondered -- can we develop land without destroying our natural heritage?.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hostetler/the-green-leap-can-we-con_b_1314981.html

Since the industrial revolution, human activities haven’t usually followed cycles. Instead, they have been based on extraction, followed by manufacturing, use and disposal: the ‘take – make – use – discard’ linear process. Natural systems can cope with this up to a point without being unduly perturbed. Unfortunately, with so many people driving the use of so many resources and the production of so much waste, we have now affected many natural cycles and the consequences are far reaching. It is true that over the last 25 years or so, there has been a trend towards recycling and reuse, although this was often driven initially by the need to reduce waste going to landfill. The circular economy approach takes this a lot further. By ignoring natural cycles rather than working with them, we are warming the planet, reducing biodiversity and could threaten the ability of humans to have a high quality of life. In case you think this is just the view of someone with a professional environmental interest, you might want to take a look at what the MoD has to say about the environment in its strategic outlook up to 2045.

Look closely at the challenges facing our world and the circular economy makes business sense. Companies are turning to a new model of sustainable business in an effort to reduce their dependence on finite resources...

The sense that our planet is running out of the minerals, metals and organic matter required to sustain its rising human population has helped to fashion a new concept for our times: the circular economy. At its core is the argument that the old, linear model of conducting business – extraction, consumption and waste – is past its sell-by date...http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/circular-economy-new-way-doing-business

-▶ THE EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS: HOW A NEW BUSINESS ERA INSPIRED BY NATURE, NOT GREED, CAN BENEFIT US ALLhttp://sco.lt/97vmc5

January 17, 2013 YES Magazine

-▶ RELIGION, SCIENCE AND SPIRIT: A SACRED STORY OF OUR TIME.Humanity’s current behavior threatens Earth’s capacity to support life and relegates more than a billion people to lives of destitutionhttp://sco.lt/8rb8DZ

Zero Footprint requires a circular economy, where all outputs must be accounted for as inputs elsewhere in the economy, where the entire lifecycle of all products is factored in, where 100% of waste becomes raw resources, powered by 100% renewable energy.

NPR, January 03, 2015-▶ A YOUNG GENERATION SEES GREENER PASTURES IN AGRICULTURE. It's a generation that has grown up in the digital age, but embraced some very old-school things: the farmers market, craft beer, artisan cheese. "Living in the city, you commute by subway, you buy your food at the supermarket, you work in a cubicle all day...You're not intimately tied to anything." Gelvosa and Gerritsen are part of a generation for whom global warming has been hanging overhead like the sword of Damocles. In fact, all the young farmers interviewed for this story mentioned environmental health and climate change as factors in choosing a life on the land.

-▶ THE ROBOT REVOLUTION HAS ALREADY BEGUN.At Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, robots roam the corridors, carrying out simple tasks for Professor Manuela Veloso and her team. These CoBots, or collaborative robots, can escort guests through the maze-like building, or carry packages from reception. If they realize they cannot perform part of a task, they will simply ask for help.http://forumblog.org/2014/09/robot-revolution-already-begun/

Guardian Sustainable Business, February 17, 2015WHAT WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MEAN FOR THE WORLD OF WORK?The question under discussion was one of the most troubling of our time: will machines ever make better decisions than humans? This is a crucial question for those interested in the future of business. What impact will machines, be they computers or robots, have on the way we work?

-▶ BETTER THAN HUMAN? WHY ROBOTS WILL, AND MUST, TAKE OVER HUMAN JOBSThe rote tasks of any information-intensive job can be automated. It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor, lawyer, architect, reporter, or even programmer: The robot takeover will be epic.... http://www.stateofnature.org/?p=5856

Examiner.com, February 06, 2015-▶ NEW HOTEL OPENING IN JAPAN WILL BE OPERATED BY ROBOTS

To ease the burden on medical staff, Japanese hospitals and retirement homes have opened their doors to humanoids to fill the gap left by a growing shortage of manpower. It's no secret that Japan is facing a demographic crisis. Its population is aging and its birth rate is on the decline. The Japanese government admits it doesn't have enough nurses to care for the one in four people aged over 65, a ratio that will only increase in the next few decades.http://www.france24.com/en/2014-05-25-1915-down-earth-robot-japan-elderly-care-health-palro-humanoid/

August, 21, 2014 -▶ JAPAN UNVEILS WORLD'S FIRST ANDRIOD NEWSCASTER -- The android newscaster named Kodomoroid, developed under the supervision of Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, has taken the world by storm. Mr. Ishiguro says the android newscaster he has developed has perfect language skills and even sports a sense of humor.http://www.bitrebels.com/technology/worlds-first-android-newscaster/

WATCH▶ TALKING ROBOTS TAKE CONTROL OF KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO'S TRAFFIC: Two eight-foot talking androids directing driver and pedestrians and the engineers behind them are womenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xauw5VYUSuc

Wired, August 25, 2014 -▶THE PLAN TO BUILD A MASSIVE ONLINE BRAIN FOR ALL THE WORLD'S ROBOTSBacked by funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm, Saxena and his team unveiled what they call RoboBrain, a kind of online service packed with information and artificial intelligence software that any robot could tap into. Working alongside researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, Brown University, and Cornell University, they hope to create a massive online “brain” that can help all robots navigate and even understand the world around them. http://www.wired.com/2014/08/robobrain/

ScienceNordic, February 06, 2014-▶ HAND PROSTHESIS WITH A SENSE OF TOUCH. A new hand prosthesis enables an amputee to feel a handshake for the first time in years. A quantum leap in prosthesis research, says scientist.http://sciencenordic.com/hand-prosthesis-sense-touch

Ars Technica, April 07, 2014 -▶ AS HUMAN LAWS GRAPPLE WITH ROBOTS, THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS. Can you sue a robot for medical malpractice? For defamation? There’s been a lot of buzz about robots lately. Robotics has penetrated nearly every walk of life—from homes to hospitals, public spaces, and even the battlefield—and such technological developments have undoubtedly begun to affect our social, cultural, and corporate institutions.http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/as-human-laws-grapple-with-robots-there-are-no-easy-answers/

Robots should seen be seen as taking over some human jobs. Such as taxi drivers or doctors. It will prove to be much more efficient, for example a robot taxi driver could calculate the fastest route to your destination including traffic jams and traffic lights.

Fritjof Capra, in his book ‘The Hidden Connections’ applies aspects of complexity theory, particularly the analysis of networks, to global capitalism and the state of the world; and eloquently argues the case that social systems such as organisations and networks are not just like living systems – they are living systems. The concept and theory of living systems (technically known as autopoiesis) was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela.

Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 17, 2014 -▶ LOOKING TO NATURE FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION. If we foster new skills, tools, and techniques to explore and unearth the latent knowledge within and around us, then we can tap into a whole new source of ideas and inspiration for people solving social problems.http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/looking_to_nature_for_social_innovation

Architecture and Biologically-Inspired EngineeringBiomimicry is the science of mimicking life. Have millions of years of evolution churned out all the answers? Down to Earth explores how biologically-inspired engineering is changing the way we innovate. From aircraft manufacturing, architecture for urban living, to reproducing synthetic spider silk, research and development laboratories are turning to nature for solutions. Proponents say the best recipes for innovation already exist and we just need to look around us.http://www.france24.com/en/20140609-down-to-earth-biomimicry-nature-technology-architecture-biology-engineering-airbus/

A TED VIDEO Louie Schwartzberg: TED.com "HIDDEN MIRACLES OF THE NATURAL WORLD"We live in a world of unseeable beauty, so subtle and delicate that it is imperceptible to the human eye. To bring this invisible world to light, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg bends the boundaries of time and space with high-speed cameras, time lapses and microscopes.http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_hidden_miracles_of_the_natural_world

▶ IN THE WORLD'S "SIXTH EXTINCTION": ARE HUMANS THE ASTEROID?Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the new book The Sixth Extinction. It begins with a history of the "big five" extinctions of the past, and goes on to explain how human behavior is creating this sixth one — including our use of fossil fuels and the effects of climate change.

There are so many different ways to fight poverty, and it's getting easier every day for people from all walks of life to get involved in doing so. But such unprecedented and growing opportunity to do good also carries the risk of repeating past mistakes at an unprecedented and growing scale.

Professor Ananya Roy, at the University of California at Berkeley, takes a class of around 700 undergraduates each fall semester on a journey walking the fine line between that opportunity and risk, or in her words, "the impossible space between the hubris of benevolence and the paralysis of cynicism."http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=3413

Guardian, September 22, 2015▶ DAVOS 2015: WORLD LEADERS 'FAILING ON SOCIAL COHESION' - Racial tensions, class inequalities and unreformed global institutions show that government leaders around the world are failing to deliver social cohesion, US thinktank chief Anne-Marie Slaughter has said

-▶ CLIMATE CHANGE AND INEQUALITY IS BREWING GLOBAL SOCIAL UPHEAVAL - WORLD BANK CHIEF.President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, is warning that the combined crises of planetary climate change and rising global inequality in a highly interconnected world will lead to the rise of widespread upheaval as the world's poor rise up and clashes over access to clean water and affordable food result in increased violence and political conflict.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/04

RETURN OF DEBTORS' PRISON IN U.S. -- IMPOVERISHED JAILED FOR INABILITY TO PAY FINES AND DEBTS VIDEO REPORThttp://sco.lt/8k4fh3

CNBC News, November 20, 2014▶ FAT CHANCE: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC

Our expanding waistlines are costing the global economy almost as much to deal with as smoking and military conflict, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. The annual global bill for obesity for lost productivity and treating conditions like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers is $2 trillion. That’s nearly as much as the $2.1 trillion smoking or war and conflict costs the global economy, a group of analysts at the research institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044

Mother Jones, September 11, 2014 -▶ THE RICH ARE EATING RICHER, THE POOR ARE EATING POORER.First of all, incomes have stagnated. Overall real median incomes today stand at 1989 levels, as this September US Federal Reserve report shows. And real median incomes declined 5 percent between 2010 and 2013, the report shows, even as income levels at the top expanded. That means that the "recovery" of the past three years hasn't felt like much of one for millions of families... http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/09/food-inequality

Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros's "The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence" focuses on the central role of violence in perpetuating poverty, and shows that if any headway is to be made, this issue has to become a top priority for policymakers. Simply put, if people aren't safe, nothing else matters. Shipping grain to the poor, helping them vote, or assisting their efforts to start a farm is irrelevant. Whatever material improvements we provide will simply wash away in the face of the corrupt police forces, out-of-control, armies, private militias, organized criminals, and — not least — failed justice systems that plague poor countries....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY0FRy4JLYo

Guardian, November 26, 2014-▶ RETHINKING PROPERITY. CAPITALISM vs ENVIRONMENT. CAN GREED EVER BE GREEN? Is it possible to run an expanding capitalist economy while keeping its impacts within safe ecological boundaries, or is the greed-driven system effectively a suicide machine that is doomed to destroy itself? The fact that the now dominant capitalist economic system is unsustainable is not in doubt. It has contributed to the breaching of several ecological boundaries, in relation to climate change, biodiversity loss and nutrient enrichment. At the same time as damaging the natural systems that sustain it, capitalism is also leading to increasing inequality, in turn creating social tensions that make it still more exposed.

The most widely accepted definition of “sustainable development” appeared the 1987 report of UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development, titled Our Common Future. It said: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

InterPress Service, November 28, 2014▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/

As far as we've come in redefining corporate governance and success toward the triple bottom line, we still have a distance to go before there is real specificity and widespread agreement among companies and consumers about what terms like "natural capital" or even "sustainability" mean.

This can be seen as a shortcoming or a vacuum, but it's also a huge opportunity for smart businesses to take up. The moment is ripe for disruption; potentially revolutionary understandings of businesses' goals and metrics are increasingly coming into focus. More than ever, consumers want to live meaningfully and to engage with brands that have a purpose. That's galvanizing companies to drill down on defining their social and environmental purpose today, and anticipating how it will evolve in the future.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tensie-whelan/how-natural-capital-is-redefining-success_b_6005244.html

It has become patently clear to many that business is undergoing a metamorphosis. Due to a perfect storm of social, economic and environmental factors, organizations have little option other than to seek out opportunities in these volatile times, adapt and evolve to what the book The Nature of Business refers to as “firms of the future” – businesses more akin to living organisms than mechanistic monoliths designed for the Industrial Era. These firms of the future can take inspiration from nature at all levels within their strategies and operations. For instance: ...http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/827-the-evolution-of-business-creating-firms-of-the-future-through-biomimicry

Guardian Environment, September 24, 2013▶ BEYOND 'BUSINESS-AS-USUAL': THE CRISIS OF CIVILISATION IS AN UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY

The Converging climate, energy, and economic crises. Importantly, that's not to say that we're all doomed. Far from it: while the crisis of civilisation shows that business-as-usual is not sustainable - and could at worst lead to an uninhabitable planet by the end of this century based on the consensus science projections - I've argued that we are already in the midst of a process of civilisational transition which offers unprecedented opportunities to re-envision new forms of prosperity that can function in harmony with our environment, rather than in conflict with it. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/sep/24/crisis-civilisation-unprecedented-opportunity-transition

▶ BRANDING: CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: THE ROLE OF NATURAL ART AND IMAGINATION TO CREATE CHANGE - Largely absent from the business world, animal portraits without words or explicit messages around sustainability, were found to effectively change perceptions and communicate the need for change.http://sco.lt/5E5bSD

"Guardianship is a word that rings out in my head. We are meant to be guardians and trustees of this planet. For me, and for many others, the collective goal of humanity is towards the stewardship of our people, the planet and our ecosystems. We have a duty to protect and enhance our communities and ecosystems for the betterment of future generations"...Nicole Tilde

▶ CORPORATE FINANCIALIZATION OF NATURE A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. The "financialization of nature" is a flawed approach to saving biodiversity, "Biodiversity and forests are critical for the survival of people and the planet, and are thus priceless. Our biodiversity needs to be protected, not speculated on by reckless and unaccountable financial markets,” says Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International Coordinator of the Forests and Biodiversity Program.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/13

InterPress Service, November 28, 2014▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/

As far as we've come in redefining corporate governance and success toward the triple bottom line, we still have a distance to go before there is real specificity and widespread agreement among companies and consumers about what terms like "natural capital" or even "sustainability" mean. This can be seen as a shortcoming or a vacuum, but it's also a huge opportunity for smart businesses to take up. The moment is ripe for disruption; potentially revolutionary understandings of businesses' goals and metrics are increasingly coming into focus. More than ever, consumers want to live meaningfully and to engage with brands that have a purpose. That's galvanizing companies to drill down on defining their social and environmental purpose today, and anticipating how it will evolve in the future.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tensie-whelan/how-natural-capital-is-redefining-success_b_6005244.html

▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH. Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/83jybZ

VIDEO (3.30) Grassroots InternationalPUTTING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY BEFORE CORPORATE PROFITSBig business wants to control our resources--grabbing land, privatizing water, patenting seeds, and trying to squeeze out anyone who gets in the way of their profits. Fortunately, there is an alternative that places the rights of people and communities ahead of corporate interests--resource rights. http://www.grassrootsonline.org/issues/resource-rights

It is not easy to put a value on a forest, a clean river, or unpolluted air, but that is what a group of the world's biggest banks is attempting to do.

43 financial institutions have agreed that the way the present economic system uses and often destroys the environment without paying to do so is not sustainable.

The banks are also concerned that some companies are using up natural resources so fast, with no thought for their own future, let alone that of the planet, that they will collapse. They want a way of warning them and ultimately withdrawing their credit unless the companies mend their ways...http://www.eco-business.com/news/banks-put-price-earths-life-support/

▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/5I5UeX

VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING. Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.

WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min)We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/

▶ A GREEN, COMMONS-BASED GOVERNANCE: THE RIGHT TO A CLEAN AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL SPECIEShttp://sco.lt/8qokwj

The bankers went on to acknowledge this was partly their fault because they had no way of valuing this natural capital, nor did they currently recognize the danger to the stability of some companies because of its destruction. They want governments to force companies to disclose their dependence on natural capital and the impact they have on it by disclosures in annual financial reports.

THE 21st CENTURY CORPORATE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA World Development Movement-▶ STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA'S FOOD. Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa. - See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food#sthash.dgDwkdF0.dpufhttp://www.wdm.org.uk/food

GRAIN, October 23, 2014▶ HARVEST OF HARDSHIP: YALA SWAMP LAND GRAB DESTROYS KENYAN FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD.Dominion Farms arrived in Kenya's Yala Swamp basin in 2004 with big promises. The company claimed it would turn a defunct state demonstration farm into a modern rice plantation, provide locals with good jobs, and build hospitals and schools. The American owner of the company, Calvin Burgess, presented himself as a 'man of God', on a mission to bring US-style progress to Africa. The locals, sold on this grand vision, decided – with some hesitation and dissent – to allow Dominion to farm on 3,700 ha of their lands...http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5061-harvest-of-hardship-yala-swamp-land-grab-destroys-kenyan-farmers-livelihoods

WATCH"BIG MEN" (1:23:00)Big Men provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development in Ghana, Nigeria, Africa — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world. http://www.pbs.org/pov/bigmen/full.php

▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS

There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.

History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....

...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise...http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291

Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA?African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594

farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014▶ CORPORATE INFLUENCE THROUGH THE G8NA AND OBAMA'S NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN AFRICA. In recent times, new partnerships models between governments, business and civil society are increasingly gaining attention. One prominent example is the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (G8NA), inaugurated at the G8 summit 2012 in the United States.

This working paper concludes that the approach and objectives of the G8NA are highly problematic. The initiative serves as an enforcing mechanism for corporate driven blueprints for agriculture and sidelines national plans and international standards. It is dominated and tailored towards the interests of big corporate actors and is based on a reductionist approach of agricultural “development”. And lastly, the G8NA is poorly institutionalized and disregards fundamental principles of transparency participation and accountability. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23793

Guardian Global Development, February 18, 2014▶ THE G8 AND THE CORPORATE TAKE OVER OF AFRICAN FARMING.As part of the New Alliance, 10 African governments have signed up to change dozens of laws, policies and regulations to make their countries more attractive to the private sector. Collectively, they have made more than 200 commitments, including the overhaul of seed and tax laws and the setting aside of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land for commercial investors. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/interactive/2014/feb/18/g8-fight-future-african-farming-interactive

Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY.“Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report.http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/

Inter Press Service, August 04, 2014▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH.The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/

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-▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/63qRl3

▶ A PRIVATE AFFAIR: REPORT SHOWS HOW DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS BENEFIT THE RICH IN WESTERN COUNTRIESThe European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) launched today the study A Private Affair in which it shows how the world’s biggest multilateral lenders are using billions of euros of loans in developing countries to finance Western-based companies while excluding governments and citizens of countries they are meant to assist from decision-making.

Fast Company, February 2, 2014 ▶ HOW PATAGONIA IS INCREASING PROFITS WHILE SAVING THE WORLD.Since Rose Marcario joined Patagonia six years ago, the badass-by-nature company has tripled its profits. And no, it hasn't sold its soul.

-▶ COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY: BRAND EDITION: DOWNLOAD WHITEPAPER.For those new to this topic, there's an unstoppable trend of people trading, renting, and borrowing all kinds of services and goods. The disruptive impacts to brands are high: consumers can now buy and trade among themselves, often without purchasing things directly from the brands themselves. Corporations who don’t pay attention to this trend, are leaving themselves in a state of risk as technology and society continue to quickly innovate...http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/02/26/collaborative-economy-brand-edition/

-▶ WHY SAVING THE PLANET IS NO LONGER THE WORK OF POLITICAL LEADERS: AN URGENT COLLABORATIVE TASK AHEAD

Why saving the planet is no longer the work of political leaders -

From states to citizens, everyone has a stake in overcoming the inertia that surrounds decisive action on sustainability...

With the collapse of intergovernmental and global processes, it is becoming increasingly apparent that we now must use new mechanisms that bring businesses and communities together. For these to succeed, we need new ways to define and measure our goals and achievements. Saving the planet is no longer the work of political leaders, but an opportunity for managers, CEOs, accountants and activists to devise collaborative solutions.... there must be measurable goals and a new mechanism for accountability.

No longer is conventional CSR reporting adequate to the task. New accounting methods, as Rio's Declaration on Natural Capital begins to define, must be put in place....

Shanghai Metal Corporation, November 18, 2014 ▶ THE SHARING ECONOMYIn today’s society where the pressure of environmental sustainability is growing, the problems of overproduction and overconsumption are becoming more and more important. To answer this problem, a new system of economy begins to appear : “The Sharing Economy”, also called “The Collaborative Economy”http://shanghaimetalcorporation.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/the-sharing-economy/

VIDEO British CouncilSOCIAL ENTERPRISE: THE NEXT WAVE OF SOCIAL CHANGESocial Enterprise is a social and economic movement that is growing rapidly across the western world particularly in the UK, Europe and the USA. A new generation of entrepreneurs are redefining business by creating enterprises that create social value parallel to profit.http://www.britishcouncil.lk/social-enterprise

Guardian, April 07, 2014 ▶ TURNING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY INTO LOCAL CONNECTED COMMUNITIES."We no longer know where our food comes from when it ends up on our plate or where the waste goes when we finish a meal," observes Michelle Long, founder and chief executive of Balle .. Repairing the broken relationships wrought by the combination of economic globalization and corporate giantism is essential. And not only for our economy, which she argues will become more resilient and more productive as it becomes more local (ie boasting shorter supply chains, greater local ownership, closer proximity to the environment, higher socially inclusivity and so forth). But the more connected as individuals we are, she maintains, the happier and more fulfilled we'll be as human beings. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/global-economy-connected-communities-local

WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min)We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/

-▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFEhttp://sco.lt/8Bx5er

-▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?

Guardian, Social Enterprise Network, March 07, 2014-▶ THERE IS A PHENOMENAL CONCENTRATION OF POWER IN THE HANDS OF A FEW: SOCIAL ENTERPRISES AS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO CONSUMERISM.Social enterprises have a huge future in business. "As Van der Hoff Boersma explains in his book, it's about looking for solutions that the poor themselves have. "We need to use this current crisis of capitalism to push forward an alternative model of an economy based on solidarity to which social enterprises are one manifestation."http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2014/mar/07/fairtrade-fortnight-harriet-lamb-interview

CHINA BECOMING AN IT GIANT, INTERVIEW WITH LIU JIREN, NEUSOFT CORP SETTING A NEW MODEL FOR IT BUSINESS

As China’s economic growth slows, it is shifting its base from manufacturing, which has powered its growth, to tertiary industry, where the IT and software sector holds the key. In the forefront of this trend is Neusoft Corp., one of China’s biggest software companies. Founded 23 years ago by Liu Jiren with three computers, the company has introduced new services to China one after the other. The company provides IT services including car electronics, health care, social insurance, energy and telecom. Liu has also established universities that specialize in IT education. The schools allow students to start in-house ventures where they can gain hands-on experience in management. Liu shares his views on the role the IT industry should play in the Chinese economy and how to nurture IT talent. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/asianvoices/141107.html

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren on the conflict between capitalism and humanism. "THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CAPITALISM AND HUMANISM... YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH"

New York Times, July 26, 2013 - by Peter Buffet

-▶ THE CHARITABLE-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX - PETER BUFFET

As more lives are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.”

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire invester Warren, argues that philanthropy needs to do a better job of listening. He says that the structure of philanthropy is such that nothing seems to get better, but rather locks existing problems into place.

VIDEO: 27:38 GIVE IT ALL AWAY: NEWMAN'S OWN RECIPE FOR SUCCESSThis documentary traces Paul Newman's legacy of giving. It chronicles the path of the Newman's Own Foundation food company as it evolved and funded a variety of charities across the nationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8o-TRbFuwM&feature=youtu.be

When all is said and done about the pros and cons of philanthropy today, we are rely on it more and more. As our government continues to replace democracy with Casino Capitalism, it is leaving the 99% behind in this high stakes poker game being played by the 1%. This has also increased the crevase between wealth and the poverty by creating a new socio-economic class, The Middle Class Poor.http://www.facebook.com/theMiddleClassPoor/&nbsp;

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."~ Albert Einstein

Guardian Sustainable Business, January 08, 2013

-▶ HOW A SENSE OF SACRED CAN HELP SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS - RESTORING VALUES. Sustainability leaders could learn from Buddhist Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who believes in a deeper human connection with Mother Earth...

"If nothing is sacred, most of all nature, then we create the potential for the perfect kind of storm, to which it will be virtually impossible to adapt, let alone mitigate." He hits the nail on the head; we are not going to save ourselves and countless species from destruction with innovations in technology and business thinking alone, unless we heal our profound disconnection with Mother Earth.http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sense-sacred-sustainable-business-buddhist

InterPress Service, November 28, 2014▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/

-▶ FINANCIALIZING NATURE COULD BANKRUPT US ALL. OLD ECONOMICS OR SUSTAINING POLICY? http://sco.lt/8fNIET

SHORT TED VIDEO 3:34FRANS LANTING: PHOTOS THAT GIVE VOICE TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each otherhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8-jp_6Uqg

IC Magazine, December 09, 2014 -▶ ARIZONA DEFENDERS FACE IMMINENT LAND GRAB OF SACRED LANDS BY FOREIGN MINING COMPANIES.Congress is set to approve the giveaway of 2,400 acres of National Forest lands, including the burial, ceremonial and medicinal lands of the San Carlos Apaches, to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of British-Australian Rio Tinto Mining Corp., a company with a long history of environmental and human rights abuses in developing countries.https://intercontinentalcry.org/arizona-defenders-face-imminent-land-grab-26496/

SHORT TED VIDEO 3:34FRANS LANTING: PHOTOS THAT GIVE VOICE TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each other https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8-jp_6Uqg

Guardian, June 01, 2014▶ WHO'S IN CONTROL? -- NATION STATE OR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS?The limited ability of national governments to pursue any agenda that has not first been endorsed by international capital and its proxies is no longer simply the cross they have to bear; it is the cross to which we have all been nailed. The nation state is the primary democratic entity that remains. But given the scale of neoliberal globalisation it is clearly no longer up to that task. "By many measures, corporations are more central players in global affairs than nations," writes Benjamin Barber in Jihad vs McWorld. "We call them multinational but they are more accurately understood as postnational, transnational or even anti-national. For they abjure the very idea of nations or any other parochialism that limits them in time or space." "We are in government but not in power," said Lula's close aide, Dominican friar Frei Betto. "Power today is global power, the power of the big companies, the power of financial capital."http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/02/control-nation-states-corporations-autonomy-neoliberalism

▶ UKRAINE AGREES TO MONSANTO LAND GRAB FOR $17 BILLION MF LOAN.A bit of political maneuvering by the IMF gave the Ukraine a $17 billion loan – but only if they would open up to biotech farming and the selling of Monsanto’s poison crops and chemicals – destroying a farmland that is one of the most pristine in all of Europe. Farm equipment dealer, Deere, along with seed producers Dupont and Monsanto, will have a heyday.https://www.popularresistance.org/ukraine-agrees-to-monsanto-land-grab-for-17-billion-imf-loan/

NPR, November 17, 2014 ▶ TOP SPENDERS ON CAPITOL HILL PAY BILLIONS, RECEIVE TRILLIONS.The Sunlight foundation took the 200 corporations most active in Washington, analyzed the years 2007-2012 and applied several metrics: what the companies got in federal contracts and other federal support, what they spent on lobbying, how much their executives and political action committees gave in campaign contributions.http://www.npr.org/2014/11/17/364591114/top-spenders-on-capitol-hill-pay-billions-receive-trillions

Alternet, November 21, 2014-▶ THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME A CLEARING HOUSE FOR BIG MONEY. Health insurers, media and telecommunications, retailers, Big Pharma – no wonder Washington’s K Street is lobbying’s road to Paradise.

Institute for Policy Studies, November 13, 2014-▶ REPORT: FLEECING UNCLE SAM. A growing number of corporations spend more on executive compensation than federal income taxes.http://www.ips-dc.org/fleecing-uncle-sam/

CNBC News, November 20, 2014▶ OBESITY AS A BUSINESS: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC

Our expanding waistlines are costing the global economy almost as much to deal with as smoking and military conflict, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. The annual global bill for obesity for lost productivity and treating conditions like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers is $2 trillion. That’s nearly as much as the $2.1 trillion smoking or war and conflict costs the global economy, a group of analysts at the research institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044

▶ WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CORPORATE PALM OIL -- IN ONE SHORT VIDEO -- DEFORESTATION, ECOCIDEhttp://sco.lt/6ni33R

-▶ Euractive, November 17, 2014FRENCH GOVERNMENT WILL NOT SIGN TTIP AGREEMENT IN 2015Matthias Fekl, France's Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, has made it clear that France will not support the inclusion of the Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS) in a potential TTIP agreement. The ISDS is a point of heated debate between the EU and the United States. This mechanism could give companies the opportunity to take legal action against a state whose legislation has a negative impact on their economic activity. http://www.euractiv.com/sections/trade-society/french-government-will-not-sign-ttip-agreement-2015-310037

Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY. “Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report.http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/

▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE

Guardian, November 19, 2014 ▶ SECRET DOCUMENTS REVEALED: KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE COMPANY'S PR BLITZ TO SAFEGUARD ITS BACK UP PLAN -- HORRIFYING. Energy East strategy drawn up by public relations firm Edelman calls for thousands of activists, major online campaign and digging into background of opposition groups as methods TransCanada Corporation should use to ‘play offence’ against its detractors

Ecowatch, August 16, 2012 ▶ AQUACULTURE: WORLD'S INSATIABLE APPETITE FOR FISH DECIMATES WILD FISH POPULATION.“Growth in fish farming can be a double-edged sword,” said Nierenberg, co-author of the report and Director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project. “Despite its potential to affordably feed an ever-growing global population, it can also contribute to problems of habitat destruction, waste disposal, invasions of exotic species and pathogens, and depletion of wild fish stock.”http://ecowatch.com/2012/08/16/decimates-wild-fish-population/

The Ecologist, February 06, 2015-▶ ILLEGAL SWEDISH FISHERY IS 'CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE' Trawlers in an MSC-certified 'sustainable' lobster fishery producing have been caught in the act of using illegally modified nets to target valuable cod. The MSC has been notified but refuses to act, so the lobsters still carry the MSC label

TriplePundit, June 26, 2014-▶ CONSUMER DEMAND COULD TURN THE TIDE ON SUSTAINABLE FISHING.In 2006 Walmart sold fresh Atlantic salmon fillets in its stores for $4.84 per pound — an incredibly low price. Where did it all this cheap salmon come from? As it turns out, over the previous 10 years, fish farms had proliferated along the coast of Chile, a country far from the natural habitat of Atlantic salmon in the cold waters of the northern hemisphere. Lax regulation and price-driven suppliers eager to meet Walmart’s demand led to exactly the kind of overcrowded, antibiotic-heavy, environmentally-destructive fish farms that environmentalists caution against. In 2007 an outbreak of an infectious disease led to a near-collapse of the salmon farming industry in Chile.... http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/06/corporate-policies-turn-tide-sustainable-fishing-push-consumer-demand/

-▶ IS IT NOW ETHICAL TO EAT FARMED, CAGED FISH? There aren't plenty more fish in the sea. Our fish and seafood consumption is soaring, so in steps aquaculture. From 2011 to 2012 global aquaculture provided 90m tonnes of fish, overtaking 80m tonnes from the wild fisheries. But in reality 50% of the world's wild caught fish are fed to other animals, including farmed fish. There's also a large pressure group advocating introducing GM farmed salmon – dubbed "Frankenfish" ...

Guardian, November 26, 2014 -▶ RETHINKING PROSPERITY. CAPITALISM vs ENVIRONMENT. CAN GREED EVER BE GREEN? Is it possible to run an expanding capitalist economy while keeping its impacts within safe ecological boundaries, or is the greed-driven system effectively a suicide machine that is doomed to destroy itself? The fact that the now dominant capitalist economic system is unsustainable is not in doubt. It has contributed to the breaching of several ecological boundaries, in relation to climate change, biodiversity loss and nutrient enrichment. At the same time as damaging the natural systems that sustain it, capitalism is also leading to increasing inequality, in turn creating social tensions that make it still more exposed.

United Nations News Centre, February 05, 2015 -▶ UN SEC.GEN BAN : DEVELOPMENT MUST BE BUILT ON INCLUSIVE POLICY ALIGNED WITH PEOPLE'S NEEDS, ASPIRATIONS : Mr. Ban said that policymakers in the past had focused too much on economic growth, without taking into account social concerns or environmental factors...economic growth must be judged in terms of its impact on human well-being – rather than an end in itself... not just the quantity, but the quality of growth.” http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50005#.VNO_9p3F9Q0

CNBC News, November 20, 2014▶ OBESITY AS A BUSINESS: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC

The annual global bill for obesity for lost productivity and treating conditions like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers is $2 trillion. That’s nearly as much as the $2.1 trillion smoking or war and conflict costs the global economy, a group of analysts at the McKinsey Global Research Institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044

Business Daily, February 10, 2015-▶ WE CAN DEVISE GROWTH THAT DOES NOT DESTROY THE PLANET

The Ecologist, October 06, 2014▶ EXTREME INEQUALITY: The massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of a few people presents a significant threat to democracy and well being...the richest 85 people in the world had the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population: over 3 billion people. http://www.theecologist.org/magazine/features/2583990/extreme_inequality.html

-▶ CLIMATE CHANGE AND INEQUALITY IS BREWING GLOBAL SOCIAL UPHEAVAL - WORLD BANK CHIEF. President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, is warning that the combined crises of planetary climate change and rising global inequality in a highly interconnected world will lead to the rise of widespread upheaval as the world's poor rise up and clashes over access to clean water and affordable food result in increased violence and political conflict. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/04

Triple Pundit, December 12, 2014 -▶ REPORT REVEALS DIFFERENCES IN GDP AND INCLUSIVE WEALTH.Conventional economic theory is rife with assumptions that not only paint a narrow, inaccurate and vastly oversimplified view of the future prospects and actual overall impacts of investment decisions, but also justify investments that, over the long-term, can drive societies over the proverbial cliff. ... http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/12/2014-report-reveals-startling-differences-gdp-inclusive-wealth/

Ensia, December 11, 2014▶BUILDING THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISM : Markets that pursue wanton growth and profit at any cost and systematically fail to recognize environmental costs, fostering destruction of a living system all life depends on, cannot survive. We must build a new economy. And to do that, we must build a new politics.

With the planet already exceeding its sustainable carrying capacity, we should be reducing our demands on it – not adding new ones. Simply put, we can no longer depend on GDP growth, and the limitless wealth accumulation that it implies, to solve our social and economic problems.

Inter Press Service, December 12, 2014 -▶ WANT ECONOMIC GROWTH? LESSEN INEQUALITY. For years, many policy makers, including economists, have clung to the belief that if states do nothing to boost income equality, market forces will cause wealth to trickle down to the poorest citizens and contribute to overall growth. That theory is now being increasingly debunked as experts affirm that the broadening gap in income is creating far-ranging problems for many societies.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/12/want-economic-growth-lessen-inequality/

▶ WHICH GREEN ECONOMY? Current debates about how we measure growth and prosperity will have enormous ramifications for global trade, production and consumption patterns. The various perspectives broadly agree the current economic model is unsustainable on a planet that has finite resources and limits. http://whygreeneconomy.org/which-green-economy/

Our politicians are hung up on keeping the growth curve rising. But does GDP really tell us all we need to know about a country's wealth and well-being? In this new RSA Short, Kate Raworth makes a powerful argument to look beyond economic growth alone for a true measure of prosperity and progress. Kate Raworth is a renegade economist teaching at Oxford University, and is focused on the rewriting of economics to make it a fit tool for addressing the 21st century's social and ecological challenges. She blogs on Doughnut Economics athttp://www.kateraworth.com and tweets @KateRaworth

Guardian Environment, May 21, 2010

▶ UN SAYS GOODS AND SERVICES FROM THE NATURAL WORLD SHOULD BE FACTORED INTO THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM

InterPress Service, November 28, 2014 ▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/

▶ THE STATE OF MARYLAND'S -- "GENUINE PROGRESS INDICATOR"Maryland developed its Genuine Progress Indicator to measure how development activities impact long-term prosperity, both positively and negatively. Here in Maryland and across the globe, people are continually challenged by the need to find a balance between advancing economic gain and ensuring social well-being... http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/mdgpi/

Indeed, it's not enough to call the dollar value of what you're people are buying and selling "wealth".

Where are the environmental factors that will cost us money due to the loss of economic activity (thanks to weather and climatic difficulties)? Where are the markers for well being and other aspects of human happiness?

Capitalism is going to kill itself off, regardless of what anyone does to try to save it in its present form. The death has already happened, just as the roots of death are in anything that we may develop. Either things will be eclipsed by better things, or else, they'll collapse into worse things that we'll have to dig our way out of.

I'd rather have things go the former way, rather than the latter. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a say about how we achieve that.

Nature is not a drag on growth – its protection is an unavoidable prerequisite for sustaining economic development.

The value of the carbon capture services which could be gained through halving the deforestation rate by 2030 is around $3.7 trillion

One of the greatest misconceptions of our time is the idea that there is somehow a choice between economic development and sustaining nature. ...environmental goals need to be scaled back to promote more growth. The reality we inhabit is somewhat different, however. One hundred per cent of economic activity is dependent on the services and benefits provided by nature... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/jan/09/economy-nature

Guardian Sustainable Business, February 19, 2015-▶ ENVISIONING A FUTURE WITH LESS DOOM AND GLOOM: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF OPTIMISTS :

Bill Shireman, president of Future 500, a global nonprofit that connects corporations and NGOs to overcome sustainability challenges

THE BIOSPHERE: NATURE IS ALL WE HAVE. Imagine an economic community in which nobody could list the stakeholders or identify those about to default. Or try to set a value on a reference library that has catalogued only a fraction of its archive, and some of that wrongly. Think of a reserve bank with most of its ledgers missing. Humankind is in that kind of predicament: it depends almost entirely on natural capital to generate food and fibre, building materials, fuel and pharmaceuticals, to pollinate crops, filter drinking water, recycle waste and maintain the oxygen supply. Living things underwrite all national economies: money, in effect, really does grow on trees.

Taxonomists identify around 18,000 new species each year, but in the same 12 months a greater number may slip into oblivion, as humans raze forests, pave or plough grasslands, bulldoze hillsides, drain swamps and dredge estuaries.Each extinction represents an asset lost or an opportunity squandered. Yet the human impact on the planetary ecosystem is now so palpable that geologists have proposed a new chronological era, the anthropocene, and biologists already call this "the sixth great extinction".

NEW SHORT VIDEOS Guardian Environment, October 06, 2014Nature has been around for more than 4.5 billion years, evolving and adjusting to whatever the universe throws at it. People, on the other hand, are very fragile and entirely dependent on what nature provides.

One of the greatest misconceptions of our time is the idea that there is somehow a choice between economic development and sustaining nature. ...environmental goals need to be scaled back to promote more growth.

It makes good business sense for companies to actively pursue an ethical supply chain. Philanthropy to worthy third parties is not enough.

The Guardian's painstaking investigation into the Thai seafood sector and the US state department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report have offered arresting revelations in recent days. Not only have shrimp supply chains worldwide proved to be tainted by forced labour on Thai vessels and on soil. These reports show how businesses of all kinds are sullied by slavery – yielding $150bn in profit each year, according to the International Labour Organisation.

Many people suppose that most trafficking is for sexual exploitation (as in Thailand's own sex trade). Yet 68% of victims are exploited for labour – like in the violent seafood-processing facility in Samut Sakhon that several young Burmese women in a Thai shelter vividly described to me when I was the US anti-trafficking envoy.

And many executives assume that tracing labour conditions in their supply chains is futile and prohibitively costly. Yet if the Guardian can do it, the business community surely can – and must.

To abolish today's slavery, businesses must actively be part of the solution. Philanthropy to worthy anti-trafficking organisations is not as important as businesses living by the equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath – at l